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This chapter examines the history of the so-called abjection of American literature, focusing on the works of Jamaica Kincaid and considering the ways in which American literature, as the subject has historically been conceived and circumscribed, has related institutionally to postcolonial perspectives. It describes a few of the ways in which postcolonialism has tended to overlook some of its own intellectual genealogies, and suggests how a paratactic reconstitution of postcolonialism within the academic matrix of American literature would elucidate certain blindspots and ideological...

This chapter examines the history of the so-called abjection of American literature, focusing on the works of Jamaica Kincaid and considering the ways in which American literature, as the subject has historically been conceived and circumscribed, has related institutionally to postcolonial perspectives. It describes a few of the ways in which postcolonialism has tended to overlook some of its own intellectual genealogies, and suggests how a paratactic reconstitution of postcolonialism within the academic matrix of American literature would elucidate certain blindspots and ideological limitations about how the contours of this Americanist zone have traditionally been mapped out.